Microsoft’s version of the Amazon Echo will be a Cortana-powered speaker

Microsoft will soon bring its digital assistant to a lot more places.

The company is opening up Cortana to third-party hardware companies so they can integrate it into hardware devices like speakers, cars and home appliances. The first of these will be a Cortana-enabled speaker made by Harman Kardon with a planned February 2017 launch, the tech giant announced at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.